iFraud: Fake Apple Stores in China

    It looks almost the same as a real Apple store. Sellers in blue t-shirts with the company logo communicate with customers. IPad 2 ads hanging on white walls. Outside, the famous logo is located next to the words “Apple Store” - one of the few clues indicating that this is a fake.

    China, long known for making fake brand name devices, has entered a new phase of piracy - fake Apple stores.

    An American living in Kunming in southern Yunnan said on Thursday that she and her husband stumbled upon three stores disguised as Apple bona fide stores a few days ago. She took photos and posted them on her BirdAbroad blog.

    The 27-year-old blogger, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the appearance of the stores was so convincing that the employees seemed to themselves believe that they work for Apple.

    “It was a classic Apple store with a spiral staircase upstairs and a place to relax. Employees even wore Apple's signature blue T-shirts and nameplates around their neck, ”she wrote on her blog.

    “But something was not quite right: the stairs were poorly made, the walls were not painted correctly. "Apple never writes 'Apple Store' on the signs of its stores, but only places an image of a luminous apple."

    An employee of a fake Apple store pictured in most of the photographs shown on BirdAbroad's blog told the Associated Press that they were the “Apple Store” before hanging up.

    But these three stores are not among the authorized resellers listed on the Apple website. The maker of the iPhone and other popular gadgets has four company stores in China, two in Beijing, two in Shanghai and several official resellers.

    Apple spokeswoman confirmed that these stores are unauthorized and fake.

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